


To Shape the Wind

by Rens_Knight



Series: Another Set of Eyes: A Star Wars Alternate Universe [2]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Gen, Literature, Sci-Fi, fan fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-28
Updated: 2018-05-28
Packaged: 2019-05-14 15:53:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14772629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rens_Knight/pseuds/Rens_Knight
Summary: When five-year-old Ben Solo starts to experiment with moving objects with his mind, Uncle Luke comes up with a unique way to harness his budding talent: Forceball!If only everyone in the family could play...





	To Shape the Wind

**Star Wars: "To Shape the Wind"**

  


"Perfect!" Uncle Luke exclaimed, opening his eyes to look at the clear blue Chandrilan sky.  "Barely a breeze, not a hint of rain in sight."

_When Dad does that_ , five-year-old Ben Solo thought to himself, _he_ opens _his eyes and looks at everything around him.  Uncle Luke...looks with his_ other _eyes.  With the Force.  Maybe he even looks_ further _than Dad can._   

Ben barely stifled a frown at that.  He didn't like thinking about the things his dad couldn't do, that he and Uncle Luke could.  Or that Mom would be able to, if she tried.  It felt...wrong, somehow.  

He thought of a word he'd heard Mom and Dad use when the talked about the bad old days, the days of the Empire.  _Disloyal_.  That's what the Imperials used to call anyone who didn't act, talk, or even think just like them: disloyal.  It was a nasty word, the kind of word that got people in big trouble as soon as it was thrown at them.  He knew he wasn't _supposed_ to feel disloyal.  The Force was a gift.  Even though the kids at school didn't think so, Uncle Luke wasn't the only person who called it a gift.  But when Ben thought much about things his dad couldn't do...that was exactly how _he_ felt.  Like he'd been found disloyal.

Uncle Luke's kind blue eyes darted down towards his nephew.  "Except that little raincloud floating right over your head," he said.  "What's bothering you, Ben?"

"Um...nothing _._ "  Ben didn't really want to talk about it, and Luke noted this and moved on.  That in and of itself made Ben feel a little better.  Uncle Luke didn't freak out like the kids at school did when he'd forgotten not to talk about what other people were feeling or thinking.  And he did it himself sometimes, at least with Ben and the family.  That could be nice sometimes, because it meant not having to explain every little thing, when the explaining sometimes made it hurt all over again.  Instead, he asked Uncle Luke a question.  "What's it perfect for?"

Now Uncle Luke's smile broadened into a wide grin.  "For... _Forceball_!"

Ben thought about it, then scowled.  " _That's_ not a sport."

Uncle Luke laughed.  "It is now!  I heard you've learned how to pick things up with your mind.  I never even _dreamed_ of doing things like that when I was your age.  I guess when you know as a kid that the Force is real, and that it's something you can use, that makes it a little easier to explore what you can do."

"And easier to break stuff," he mumbled.  Ben's ears burned as he thought of what happened the first time Mom found out.  He'd thought about making one of his toy starships fly--and it did.  Right into vidscreen, scratching it.  Mom had felt angry...and afraid?  Ben really hoped that wasn't true.

"Yeah, I've broken some stuff, too," Uncle Luke admitted.

Ben's eyes widened.  "Really?"  Uncle Luke always seemed to know how to do _everything_ with the Force.

"Really.  I had to learn too.  I was older, but I still had a power in me that I'd never used before, so I had to practice.  _And_ make mistakes.  And _that's_ why I thought the yard would make a great place for Forceball.  It's a lot harder to break things out here."

There it was again--Forceball!  There was only one thing left to do: ask.  "What's Forceball?"

"Why, I'm _so_ glad you asked!"  Uncle Luke beamed.  He stretched his hand out to the right, and a stick and ball came drifting gently over towards him, accompanied by a little tingle at the back of Ben's neck--or maybe somewhere inside his brain--that told him the Force was being used nearby.  The little white ball came to rest in Uncle Luke's left hand, and the stick in his right hand--the artificial one, though the two hands didn't look any different from here.  

"One person holds this pit-pat ball perfectly still with the Force," Uncle Luke said.  He released the feather-light, white pit-pat ball, letting it hover in the air.  "And the other person takes this cue stick--"  This time he let go of the long wroshyr-wood stick, and moved it until it lay horizontal upon the air, its tip pointing right at the ball, just a few centimeters away.  

The cue stick drew back slowly, carefully, until...click.  It tapped the side of the pit-pat ball just right, sending the ball flying until it hit the trunk of the tintolive tree on the other side of the yard, right at dead center.  It bounced harmlessly off, and to the ground.  Luke raised a hand again, pulling the pit-pat ball across the yard and back into the waiting hand.

"We'll start with you holding the ball up for me," Uncle Luke said.  "Be gentle with it...the pit-pat ball is stronger than it looks, but if you squeeze it _too_ hard, it'll still crack."

Ben reached out, stretching his fingers and then pushing his mind _past_ his fingers until somehow, it wrapped around the ball, and he lifted it up just a bit higher than Uncle Luke's waist.  It wobbled a bit as a breeze caught it--but Ben tightened his grip, just a bit: just enough that the faint breeze couldn't make off with the ball, but it was in no danger of breaking.  This part wasn't _that_ exciting, but it still made Ben smile: here he was using the Force, outside, with no danger of breaking anything!

Luke pulled back on the cue stick again with _his_ mind, and snapped the ball precisely over to the same spot on the tree trunk.

"Great!" he said as he retrieved the ball with the Force.  "Next time, I'm going to let you move the ball around a little, slowly, and I'll see if I can still tap it the right way to hit the same target.  After we do that for a while, I'll let you try the stick."

"Yes!" Ben exclaimed.  This was a weird game, for sure...but then again, some people said everything with the Force was weird.  Now he actually had a chance to have some fun with it!

Except...after several rounds, Ben became aware of a presence behind them, watching.  And the presence had one of those strange feelings, that was really two opposite things all at once.  Bittersweet, he thought.  He turned...and there was Dad, arms folded over his chest with a half-smile as he watched the game.

Suddenly Forceball felt like no fun at all.  "It's not fair," Ben complained to Uncle Luke, dropping the ball.  "It's not fair that Daddy can't play!"  That was _never_ a problem when they played action figures, stick fight, or Dr. Solo, Intergalactic MD.  This sport...well, the name said it.  It was for people who could use the Force only.  Ben remembered what C-3PO had said once about some places that wouldn't let droids after the Clone Wars happened, even though most droids weren't soldiers at all.  Definitely _not fair_.

"I dunno," Dad said, eyes narrowed, thinking.  "I _am_ a pretty mean pool shark.  That _is_ one of my cue sticks you boys have borrowed.  But that whole floating ball trick--that's a bit beyond me.  It's not as if I can just grab the wind, or whatever it is you do to make it stay up..."  Dad's voice trailed off.  Ben did his best not to listen to his dad's thoughts, but boy was that _thinking_ ever _loud_.  It buzzed all the way from where Dad was to where Ben was standing with a feeling that reminded Ben of a really, _really_ primitive style rocket engine, and then...

"Aha!" Dad burst out.  Happiness flooded off of him and Ben couldn't help his own smile even though he didn't yet know _why_.  "You kids just wait right there.  I'm gonna go in the house and grab something!"

Uncle Luke and Ben waited, until Dad ran back out the door, looking an awful lot like a _kid_ himself, with the big grin on his face, and...

...Mom's hairdryer?

Even Uncle Luke raised an eyebrow at that one.  Dad, however, seemed to know _exactly_ what he's doing.  Dad twirled the hairdryer like a blaster until the nozzle pointed straight up in the air, and held it out in front of him.  "I've got my _own_ kind of magic," Dad announced over the whirring of the dryer.  "Pilots' magic.  Luke, hold the ball nice and still over the hairdryer, and then let go really, really gently."

Using his hand instead of the Force, Uncle Luke followed Dad's instructions, and slowly, slowly, with the precision his artificial fingers allowed him, released the ball.  It bobbled dangerously for a second, but with the barest little twitches of the hand, Dad somehow guided the ball--with the hairdryer!--back into place, until it hovered, spinning wildly but otherwise still, right over the air howling out of the dryer.

"Like I said," Dad continued, grinning at his accomplishment, "pilots' magic!"

"How'd you _do_ that?" Ben gushed.

"Well, back in the old, _old_ days, before repulsorlifts, people had to pilot atmospheric ships by riding the wind just right.  See, the air speeds up when it hits the ball and slides past it, and that also means the air pressure lowers in the right places to make the ball balance in the air.  This idea is so ancient that every world has its own name for it.  On Corellia it's called Dasmin's Principle.  The Wookiees call it the Shaaashry Effect.  _Your_ textbooks might call it something different.  After we're done, I'll see if we can find out what the Chandrilans call it.  But even though we have repulsorlifts, pilots still learn this stuff because it tells us how our ships might act in an emergency if the 'lifts went out.  It means that even if something like that happens, we know a trick or two that gives us a chance to land the ship safely."

Ben stared, wide-eyed, at Dad.  "Wow," he breathed.  "That's neat!"

Dad grinned right back.  "Now," Dad said, looking at Luke for just a second as he continued to suspend the pit-pat ball in the air with the hairdryer, "whaddya say one of you grab the cue stick and give this thing a shot?  We'd better start playing or else we'll waste the charge on this thing and then Mom is _not_ gonna be happy."

Ben, however, was as happy as a purring tooka.  And so were Dad, and Uncle Luke.  


**Author's Note:**

> This story takes place only a few months after "Our Little Secret," so while Snoke has talked telepathically to five-year-old Ben a few times, he hasn't had time yet to sink his claws in really deep. This story is canon both for the universe of _Another Set of Eyes_ , and for the shared universe [EsmeAmelia](https://esmeamelia.deviantart.com) have where Ben rejects Snoke and becomes a doctor.
> 
> Science Note: "To Shape the Wind" was inspired by a science project I worked on, with some help from my dad (who is a pilot too!), to demonstrate the Bernoulli Effect. The Bernoulli Effect really does have a lot to do with flight as we know it in our world.


End file.
